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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22784809">Afar, but Not Apart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_forger643/pseuds/story_forger643'>story_forger643</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Girl Genius (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood and Injury, Character Death, My First Fanfic, Sad Ending, because fuck you that's why, i'm sorry but fuck your heart, like really sad ending, like you'd-throw-up-looking-at-it injury, props if you know what silent sky is, silent sky references</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 16:47:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,901</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22784809</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_forger643/pseuds/story_forger643</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry said he would come back, his brother by his side. He promised.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adam Clay &amp; Lilith Clay &amp; Agatha Heterodyne, Agatha Heterodyne &amp; Barry Heterodyne, Agatha Heterodyne &amp; Zeetha Daughter of Chump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Afar, but Not Apart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first fanfic, so it might not be that good. If you can give me any advice or constructive criticism, I would love that.</p><p>I have it as a headcannon that you can only cure the revenants who are still normal people, because the shambler wasps are just prototypes and damage the victim's brain so much that they die if the wasp is killed.</p><p>And they must have been testing the spark wasps somehow, these kinds of things don't work first try. Trust me, I'm an engineer, and I have never built something that worked perfectly at first, unless it was a step-by-step learn-the-basics tutorial or a basic things I've built like 10 times before. They had to test the wasps.</p><p>And I only tagged characters that actually speak and do something, albeit minor. So some characters are mentioned, but not tagged.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Agatha sighed. Leaning against the railing, she looked out over the English Channel, as airship carrying her, Gil, Tarvek, Zeetha, Bang, Violetta, Higgs, Krosp, Martellus, </span>
  <span>Xerxsephnia</span>
  <span>, Dimo, Oggie, Maxim, Jenka, Füst, and a large number of smoke knights and Krosp’s bears made its way across the water.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Staying with Albia had been...interesting, to say the least. It was nice to finally be able to think clearly, without her mother constantly pushing in her head, and she did get some decent work done to free herself from the wasp eater and Martellus. If only they hadn’t run out of time…if only...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No. Not thinking about England right now. No time, and too tired to reflect. They just had to get back to Mechanicsburg, where they could better work on freeing the city trapped in time, her </span>
  <em>
    <span>home, </span>
  </em>
  <span>where she had her minions and her town and her castle and Theo and Sleipner...and the Baron. Screw the Baron, a good 25% of this mess was easily his fault! If he had just listened, or </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>, maybe they wouldn’t be in this mess right now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Not the time to think about the Baron, either. Agatha turned around, and looked at what she saw inside the ship. It was small, with a common room, a few bedrooms, and a kitchen making up the part where she was staying. The rest was manned by the crew, the bears, and the smoke knights; nothing fancy, just enough to get back home.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inside the common room, the air was tense. Zeetha was frantically talking to the jagers-the other jagers, now that her best friend was becoming one herself? That’s probably what they were talking about, in fact. Seffie and Martellus were arguing about something, probably not something serious, considering Violetta was watching them while laughing and eating popcorn. Gil and Tarvek were trying to explain to Bang that, no, you can’t kill Zeetha, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past, we have to save the world now and we need her. Krosp was asleep on the table.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Exhausted, Agatha went up to the bedrooms and collapsed on a bed, not even caring that she had been wearing the same clothes for three days straight. She was too tired.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <em>
    <span>“Do you have to go?” A young Agatha peered into her Uncle Barry’s eyes as he put her down. She didn’t want her uncle to leave, she wanted him to stay and hug her and play with her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m sorry, Agatha, but I can’t stay here now. You’ll be with Adam and Lilith until I get back.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“But I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want you to be far away. Why can’t you stay?” Agatha was holding back tears, but she wasn’t going to cry in front of Uncle Barry. Nope. Not gonna happen.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hey, we may be far from each other kid, but as long as we’re both alive, we aren’t separate. Afar, but not apart, got it?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“But-”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“No buts. Hey, I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m going away to look for your father.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Really?! You’re gonna bring him home? But what about my mother?”</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>
      <br/>
      <br/>
    </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Your mother is long gone, but my brother, he’s just missing. I’ll be able to find him.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Promise?”</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>
      <br/>
      <br/>
    </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I give you my word, next time you see me, your father will be right by my side.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you kidding me? Shamblers? I thought they were just about gone for good! How can we have </span>
  <em>
    <span>thousands of shamblers in one place</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It does seem suspicious,” Gil said, “I agree with Tarvek, it’s seemingly out of nowhere. I mean, I didn’t know anyone even lived up in those mountains.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You run the empire where those people are right now, or at least your father did. Why do you not know this?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, give him a break, Vi. I mean, he was pretty young when his father ruled over the land, after all.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Zeetha, we are the same age,” sighed a very exasperated Gil.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“I am six minutes older than you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“THAT DOESN’T COUNT!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I say it does.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The conversation probably continued, but Agatha tuned the twins out, as she carefully surveyed the map. Shamblers...that meant killing them. You can’t cure shamblers, their brains are messed up too much for the antidote to work. The wasp is the only thing keeping their body alive, and as soon as the wasp is dead, so are they. It made it a whole lot worse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Oh well, time to rally the jagers and bears.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Agatha, behind you!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha dived and rolled away from the shamblers. Maybe not the best idea, considering she was on top of a twenty-foot-tall rock.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ARRGH!” As soon as she hit the ground, her arm exploded in pain. She had definitely heard a breaking noise on impact, and there weren’t any sticks around for her to land on.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Agatha!” Gil shot down the revenants who had taken over her perfectly good vantage point before running over to help her. “Are you okay?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’m-ooh, owowowthathurts!” Agatha winced as she tried to get up. “Nevermind. I am fairly certain that my arm is broken.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Um, okay, let’s see-ZEETHA! VIOLETTA!” Gil yelled for the other two girls. “Help Agatha back to the airship, she's broken a few bones.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Ah, c’mon, it’s not that bad,” Zeetha laughed, leaping down from the rocks, “I’m sure she can-NOPE! Nevermind, you’re getting back to the airship right now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha looked at her arm and...okay, it was pretty bad. Her arm was a swollen, purple, bloody mess, and there were several pieces of bones poking through the skin, one was even broken off and on the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t hurt,” she started to say, but Violetta cut her off.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re running on pure adrenaline and shock right now, and if you don’t get treatment soon, you could bleed to death. Let’s go. Now.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The three of them ran, Violetta running up ahead and clearing a path, as Zeetha stuck close to Agatha’s side, keeping the revenants from getting anywhere near her hurt friend.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“C’mon, we can make it, Agatha, just a little farther!” Zeetha desperately tried to get Agatha to keep moving, the poor girl seemed to be dizzy, as she began to lose balance from blood loss.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fifty yards to the ship, we’re almost there, you two!” The shout from Violetta was enough to get Agatha to try to fight a couple of them off, as she and Zeetha struggled to get through the apocalypse-like scene.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were right. The airship was so close, help was so close. Agatha could make it. She had to make it. She couldn’t die. She had to stick around, she couldn’t leave, not when everyone else had-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“RWAR!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha felt something grab her shoulder and pull her down. Not now! They were so close, to the airship, to safety, they couldn’t lose now! Not after coming this far.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get off of her, you monster!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha didn’t see Zeetha move, but next thing she knew there wasn’t anything lurking over her anymore. She felt herself being picked up as she turned to face what brought her down. Agatha was ready to fight, to kill whatever stood in her way, she was ready to-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It...no, it couldn’t be.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But it was true.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because standing right in front of her, beaten and bruised, wearing torn-up clothing, was her Uncle Barry.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha couldn’t move, couldn’t think. She was paralyzed by shock, but she couldn’t tell if it was the shock from her injury or from what she was seeing. Her uncle was alive. He was here. No longer afar.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Something moved up to his side, and Agatha felt all her breath leave her body. She knew that man. She had never seen him in person, no, but in statues and portraits and in the little picture in her locket, that was him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha was looking into the eyes of her father, Bill Heterodyne.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t believe it. But they were there. Slowly, carefully, she moved forwards, away from the ship, step by step closer to the Heterodyne boys, Bill and Barry, her </span>
  <em>
    <span>father and uncle. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Closer, she lowered her weapon and raised her arms, ready for the hug-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rawr?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No. nonononononononono.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Agatha, get back! They’re revenants!” Zeetha grabbed her shoulder as she pulled Agatha behind her, away from the boys.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, no Zeetha. That’s Bill and Barry, can’t you see that?” The hopeful tone of Agatha’s voice was almost pitiful. “They’re here to help, that’s my uncle and father.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not anymore.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And she was right. As much as Agatha hated it, Zeetha was right. The things walking toward her may bear the Heterodyne crest, one may have her eyes and the other may wear that jacket that Uncle Barry wore all the time, always smelling like soot and sweat and chemicals and science, but they were gone. And in their place, monsters.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her father and her uncle may have been at each other’s sides, but they were gone. They were revenants. Shamblers at that. They were gone, as good as dead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha screamed.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t remember how they got away from them. All she remembers after screaming was waking up to beeps in a hospital bed, her arm in a sling.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were questions, of course. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How are you feeling? What do you remember? Are you dizzy? Does it hurt when I press there?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then Adam and Lilith came.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And...you’re sure it was them?”</span>
  <span></span>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“For the millionth time, Lilith, yes it was them. There’s no way it could have been anyone else, Barry’s jacket even smelled the same.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But how? Sparks can’t be infected by shambler wasps.” Punch seemed very confused, and he was right, sparks didn’t become shamblers. Except…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, they had to have been testing spark wasps somehow, right?” Agatha was holding back tears, desperately trying not to break down crying. “They had to have been grabbing sparks left and right to test different prototypes, and two powerful ones walking right into a base of operations looking for the Other must have been too good an opportunity to resist.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So they became...test subjects?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Failed ones, it would seem. The early spark wasps must have just created shamblers.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Agatha, are you sure you’re alright? You seem-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m tired, Lilith, and I want to sleep now. Leave me alone.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As soon as they left, Agatha leaned back on her pillow. There was no point in holding tears back now, and she began to cry. Broken sobs racked her body as she remembered Uncle Barry, holding her, giving her that locket, teaching her, and promising to her that when she saw him again, her father would be right by his side.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well, he wasn’t wrong. Bill had been right next to him, just...not in the way she expected.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Agatha wished that she had never seen them, that the disappearance of her uncle and father had remained a mystery to her forever. Because then she could have at least believed that she would see him again one day. She could have kept believing in what he said to her all those years ago, that as long as they were both alive, the distance between them didn’t matter. They were afar, but not apart.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But that was no longer true, Agatha had seen it with her own eyes. They were truly apart now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Barry was gone.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>haha, yeah I said this was a sad ending. Why did I do this? Because FUCK YOU that's why.</p><p>Yet again, first fic I've ever written, so please give advice/feedback/constructive criticism. I have a lot of other ideas for fanfics that I'll probably write, so be prepared for everything from She-Ra to Girl Genius and Stranger Things. Also expect a shit ton of FTM headcannons.</p><p>That was off topic, but I would appreciate feedback. So please give, and tell me if you enjoyed it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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